Globalization and Its Influences on Project Management Styles

Project management has become a highly-sought after executive skill in today’s global market. Offices and workplaces now utilize advance technologies that makes life easier – and the world, smaller than ever. Several years ago, work trends are limited to communication within the same workplace, and the vendors, suppliers and clients are all in the same region. But because of globalization and the wider reach of communication setup, work settings now spreads out to different corners of the world. This trend will most likely persist into the future and bring in better and more reliable methods of communication to accommodate the changes brought about by globalization.

With this, management’s main concern is to cope with growing complexity of projects and organizational culture which is also influenced by borderless work settings. Executives now deal and work with people from different countries, cultures and work habits, but with the right project management styles, they can adjust and accommodate changes without sacrificing the organization’s core values and work ethics.

While globalizations have changed the way people communicate with each other and now work across different locations and function, organization’s culture and style still plays an important role in determining how project management is planned, initiated, implemented, monitored and controlled. Thus, it is very important for a manager to understand the influences of globalization to his organization’s culture and determine the management styles that needs to be tweaked or adjusted to cope up with the occurring changes. A management technique applied correctly will be welcomed and applied by the team, while those that do not seem appropriate will directly get feedback from them. In a more traditional environment, some people may be hesitant to apply and use new management styles in techniques.

When it comes to project management, there is no single set of methodologies that can be applied for all situations. What is effective in a manufacturing company will not be applicable to an organization under an oil and gas industry. You have to realize that each project is unique and adjustments will also rely on the kind of organization you have, your organizational culture and on how globalization affects you. These changes do not happen overnight, but over time, people will slowly accept new techniques to adapt and sustain the organization.